Russian Bill Banning Public Smoking Submitted to Parliament

Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Russia submitted an anti-tobacco law
to Parliament today as it seeks to curb smoking and overcome
opposition from cigarette makers.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev named Deputy Health Minister
Sergei Velmyaikin to act as a liaison with lawmakers, according
to a document dated Oct. 29 and published today on the
government’s website.

“Society will leave the lobbyists no chance,” Deputy
Prime Minister Olga Golodets said in an interview Oct. 18. “We
want to live in a comfortable country and be responsible for our
own health. In that sense the tobacco law fits the general
paradigm of Russia’s development.”

The government in the world’s second-largest market for
cigarette producers after China proposed measures that will
outlaw all tobacco advertising and sponsorship as well as kiosk
sales immediately, with bans on trade in small retail outlets
and smoking in public places taking effect Jan. 1, 2015.

Russia, which has also raised alcohol taxes as part of
efforts to improve its citizens’ health, wants the law passed
this year, according to Golodets.

Philip Morris International Inc., British American Tobacco
Plc, Japan Tobacco Inc. and Imperial Tobacco Group Plc, which
control 93 percent of the Russian market, hooked women and
children on smoking, Medvedev said in a video blog Oct. 16,
vowing to crack down on the habit.

BAT, Europe’s largest cigarette maker, fell as much as 0.5
percent and was trading down 0.1 percent at 3,123.5 pence at
1:38 p.m. in London. Imperial, the maker of Davidoff cigarettes
that reported higher operating profit today, was up 1.5 percent
at 2,367 pence.